A multi-analytical techniques based approach to study the colorful clothes and accessories from mummies of Eastern Central Asia

A wide variety of well-preserved textile finds and leather objects from four archaeological sites, situated in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (China), covering a time span from the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE to the 1st or even 3rd century CE, were analyzed by state-of-the-art analytical techniques with regard to the utilized fiber and dyestuff materials. The examined textiles consist of wool, silk or plant-based fibers and have been dyed with flavonoid-, indigoid- and anthraquinone-type dyes obtained from different plants or from scale insects. Red and black colored decorations on leather objects have been manufactured from cinnabar and carbon-based black pigments. The results offer insights into the dyeing techniques and raw materials used in prehistoric Xinjiang and reveal a complex and highly refined technology. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.